CNN Indonesia
Sunday 14 January 2024 11:00 WIB
Illustration. Arab flag. (iStock/kutaytanir)
Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Saudi Arabian have officially announced that they have officially joined the BRICS, the organization whose members are Brazil, RussiaIndia, Chinaand South Africa on Tuesday (2/1).
Saudi Arabia is one of the closest countries to the United States. Therefore, Saudi Arabia’s joining the economic cooperation bloc that includes China is believed to make Uncle Sam’s country nervous. These unrest cannot be separated from the geopolitical competition occurring between the two.
So, why does an Arab country like Saudi Arabia join Russia-China even though it is actually a close ally of the United States?
Shofwan Al Banna, an international relations academic at the University of Indonesia, believes the country is currently preparing for a post-oil future. He saw that Saudi Arabia intended to strengthen its economy by diversifying.
Apart from this, he believes that currently the world order has shifted from unipolar, dominated by the United States, to multipolar.
“The unipolar world under the United States is almost over, replaced by a multipolar world in which other countries, including those of the BRICS, play an increasingly important role,” Shofwan said.
Saudi Arabia’s accession has in fact changed the map of power in the world, especially in the region. Even so, Shofwan believes the impact of this decision will come gradually.
He said the United States would view Saudi Arabia as an entity that has now left its orbit of influence. This will obviously have consequences that will later be adopted by the United States.
“This could lead to two things. First, the United States is trying to get closer to Saudi Arabia by offering various things, such as the limited weapons that have been offered so far. Second, the United States will discipline Saudi Arabia” , Shofwan explained.
Considering that Saudi Arabia is one of the United States’ partners in oil commodities, Shofwan predicts that this incident will lead the United States to no longer consider Saudi Arabia as a stable source of oil. He also explained the possibility of a new war created by the United States to gain further access to oil.
“As Saudi Arabian oil is no longer a stable and certain supply, the United States needs greater access. How to do this? Yes, by involving itself in various conflicts that will allow it to gain and control access to new energy,” concluded Shofwan. .
In the midst of the dance, the international relations academician of Padjadjaran University also saw that this was a step by Saudi Arabia to reduce its dependence on oil raw materials, which were depleting over time.
“Saudi Arabia understands that the dependence on state oil revenues must end,” Reza said.
He saw that Saudi Arabia’s membership would cause his country to increase its bargaining power vis-à-vis one of its large partners, namely the United States.
Reza saw that Saudi Arabia’s membership opened doors to other opportunities, namely the link between BRICS and the OIC, the Arab League and the NAM. He believes this could lead this group of countries to create a new global agenda.
He based this argument on the BRICS, which is home to 40% of the world’s population.
One of the interesting potentials Reza sees is the potential for BRICS to become a pressure on the United Nations (UN). He said that the UN is currently dominated by countries that have a certain model of civilization.
Currently, the permanent members of the UN Security Council consist of the PRC whose civilization is China. Beyond that, there is the United States, England, France, and Russia, whose civilizations are Christian, Greek, and Roman, and they are white. There is no Hindu civilization, even though this religion has more than 1 billion followers. “There is no Islamic civilization whose followers exceed one billion,” Reza explained.
(sim/bac)
Watch the video below:
2024-01-14 04:00:06
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